C64 demo goodness(only watched the first two yet) from the X party which I completely forgot about until twitter reminded me of it today: http://csdb.dk/event/?id=2299_________________0xDB

PoVModeratorJoined: 21 Aug 2005
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2016 11:19 am Post subject:

I had a reminder on my digital and paper calendar for the X party... and I'm not sure why. The C64 part I get, but I wish I knew why I went through the trouble of writing it down._________________Mike Kasprzak
'eh whatever. I used to make AAA and Indie games | Ludum Dare | Blog | Tweetar

Every other year was floating around somewhere. Heck, the C64 is still right in front of my face every day, along with the printout of the 6510 opcode ref sheet with all the timings and stuff. Somehow though, other things are still in priority mode._________________0xDB

PoVModeratorJoined: 21 Aug 2005
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Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2016 2:48 pm Post subject:

Synergy.

_________________Mike Kasprzak
'eh whatever. I used to make AAA and Indie games | Ludum Dare | Blog | Tweetar

SiroccoModeratorJoined: 19 Aug 2005
Posts: 9470
Location: Not Finland

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2016 10:43 am Post subject:

Dr. Strange was a lot of fun. That is all._________________NoOP / Reyn Time -- The $ is screwing everyone these days. (0xDB)

PoVModeratorJoined: 21 Aug 2005
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Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2016 4:10 pm Post subject:

I would like to see it. Maybe Tuesday.

* * *

Today I helped a friend at his booth at a local Comic-con.

Basically I brought lunch, and we shot-the-shit for 5 hours, between sales of prints.

I explored a bit, but the con was pretty tiny (tiny given that I've done GDC and PAX). Lots of cosplay._________________Mike Kasprzak
'eh whatever. I used to make AAA and Indie games | Ludum Dare | Blog | Tweetar

So. Those of us in the US now get Trump as president. Does the rest of the world see this as a joke? I was international not to long ago and many people I met thought so.

Curious what all you folks living across the seas/border have to say about it. :]_________________loomsoft :]

PoVModeratorJoined: 21 Aug 2005
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Location: Canadia

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2016 10:07 am Post subject:

As I see it, pretty much only Americans (and Putin) like that he's president.

To put it mildly, Trump essentially promised to f*ck up foreign trade, and Canada, we're the US's largest trading partner. NAFTA affects us more than Mexico. Dennis and others can speak more to this, but European countries are more isolated from the US than we are. That said, the US economy affects the world.

There is no good reason for anyone outside the US to support him.

He ran on a platform of hate and xenophobia. Shit is made in China because that's just how the world economy works. There's no magical jobs that suddenly become available by super-taxing Chinese imports. Stuff just moves to Taiwan or Malaysia, or everything ends up costing more.

Hillary wasn't a good candidate either, but Trump is in a league of his own.

(not topical, I just like that clip)

It's gonna be a shit show. ;)

That said, big picture, it might actually be what the US needs to course correct itself. Let the shit hit the fan, badly, for it to figure out it's wrong. It may need to get worse before it can get better. Here's hoping the casualties of those learning mistakes are kept to a minimum._________________Mike Kasprzak
'eh whatever. I used to make AAA and Indie games | Ludum Dare | Blog | Tweetar

Apparently Sweden is the 10th biggest trading partner with the US (got a bit surprised to see that, it's not like we are that big of a country) so I guess this will fuck us over.

Some people are happy that Hillary aint gonna run the show because she wont be able to start WW3. I feel it's more likely that the narcissistic ADHD egomaniac manchild will do that when he starts to screw with China and inevitably starts to butt head with Putin.

I mean... Hillary is a reckless numbnut. Trump is a racist, liar, bully and sexist with a couple of rape accusations under his belt. Both are horrible people but i feel that Trump wins the horrible person award of the two. I am however not too informed on Clinton. I know there's some shady shit going on with her fondation.

Dont get me started on all the things he said he'll do during the campaign. Felt a bit too nazi-germany for my taste._________________My Blog | I take steroids for my bad knee. Now I can kick a smart car across the Walmart parking lot![/size]

Still speechless. The part of my brain which is responsible for forming and articulating intelligent thought just keeps saying "give up!, not worth the cringes" while the part which just wants to get good at art'ing and cultivating happiness regardless of exterior events is growing even stronger. It's the only constant in my life. I don't want to have to deal with all the other BS, especially not global politics which I've always felt is about psychopaths and egomaniacs powermongering around with their primary interest being their own bank account but never to create a good life for all of mankind. It's causing me nothing but pain. Real physical and emotional pain.

What's going to happen now on the world stage? I don't have the slightest clue. All I know is I want to keep breathing and I want to keep drawing, get good at art. Stay sane. Survive.

Will probably be hard with all those buttheads (Putin, Trump, Le Pen, Erdogan, ...) around. I am trying to tell myself it's just going to be another asshole in the daily news and that my life won't be affected... probably, sadly, I'll be wrong.

I'm afraid all I have is fear, uncertainty and doubt at this point. Too scared to get a coolheaded analysis and collecting facts and speculate about the future.

Our government appears to be pretty clueless as well. The short congratulation speech of Merkel(who I never liked either and do dislike a tiny bit less now) at least was not performed with any visible enthusiam, just dutifully given with clear hints addressing all the problematic behaviour and utterances during Trollnald's campaign.

Greatest fear is that rightwing populist groups like Pegida and AfD who have gained some support here are going to have a similar type of success as Trollnald.

Like the whole world is going crazy, turning stupid, falling back into extremist nationalism/dictatorships and planting the seeds for more armed conflicts or even full blown war.

All of that happening while the collective knowledge and technological possibilities of mankind as a whole are well suited to create an automated/robotized world with more than enough production to feed everyone and to provide homes for everyone.

We(mankind) would not have to struggle for survival anymore. But what do we do instead? We cling to the outdated idea that everyone has to work (despite there not being enough meaningful jobs for everyone due to automation) for survival and we stupidly assume that shutting off our respective countries is a solution. It is not.

Redistribution and sharing the results from all our production combined and not insisting on "you need to carry your own weight!" would be a solution. Embrace automation, redistribute, don't begrudge your unemployed fellow human of the free food. You did not produce that food all by yourself anyway, it was mostly machines. People can not compete with machines. But unlike machines, people still need food and homes. If our systems let the people starve (and most rightwing groups are advocating to reduce or completely abandon any kind of social security) then for whom are the machines still producing the goods?

Nationalism is not going to make automation go away. It is not going to create jobs. If it does, those jobs will vanish somewhere else in the world, leaving someone else in misery instead, which will turn into fear there, then hate, then more nationalism elsewhere, eventually fight/war for survival. If anything, nationalism is going to increase the difficulties of redistributing the surplus of necessities to wherever they are needed in the world.

We have one planet. There are plenty of resources for everyone's need but as Ghandhi said, not for everyone's greed.

I am not opposed to automation and machines doing the jobs. I'm opposed to the idea of not redistributing the wealth that machines and automation manage to create. A wealth no human can compete against with their two hands or their one brain.

I hope to see the advent of Global Unconditional Base Income someday. There is a good chance that it would bring us much closer to world peace than anything else, since the only reason we don't have world peace is existential fears and a system which conditions us into competing instead of cooperating to create a good life in peace._________________0xDB

PoVModeratorJoined: 21 Aug 2005
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 9:45 am Post subject:

To further put it in perspective, here's the front page of a Scottish Newspaper.

The rest of the world: we think you crazy. ;)

It's not intended to be mockery though. If it comes off as such, that's just us failing with our words.

It's scary; Scary for everyone.

We're no stranger to stories like Game of Thrones, where people in a position of power sacrifice others for their gain. The closest analogue we see today is cut-throat business, but (almost) nobody dies in business. Most nations have calmed-the-f*ck-down since the days of gladiatorial combat. Now a man that has little-to-no respect for people, a man that has never shown or proven he has compassion for others, has the power to decide the fate of a country. Not only that, it's one of the largest, and arguably the most financially significant country in the world. How does a world economy stabilize and grow, when anything could happen?

Natural disturbances such as forest fires, insect and disease outbreaks, drought, wind throw and floods have occurred in Canadas forests for thousands of years. Disturbance is part of the natural life cycle of the forest and most often helps the forest to renew itself.

Disturbances are particularly important to the cycle of regeneration and regrowth in boreal forests.

Forest fires often stimulate new growth
Fire, the primary change agent in the boreal zone, is as crucial to forest renewal as the sun and rain. Forest fires release valuable nutrients stored in the litter on the forest floor. They open the forest canopy to sunlight, which stimulates new growth. They allow some tree species, like lodgepole and jack pine, to reproduce, opening their cones and freeing their seeds.

Insects reduce aging trees and make the forest more productive
Insects are important in the life cycle of boreal forests. Large insect outbreaks that occur regularly help to renew the forests. Insects release nutrients stored within trees. Infestations also eliminate sick and aging trees, reducing competition among trees and making the ecosystem more productive.

This might be the necessary step to get America back on track. To embrace science, education, and rational thinking. It just has to go to a dark, firey place first. It has to get bad. People are going to get hurt. I just really hope it's as few as possible. :(_________________Mike Kasprzak
'eh whatever. I used to make AAA and Indie games | Ludum Dare | Blog | Tweetar

SiroccoModeratorJoined: 19 Aug 2005
Posts: 9470
Location: Not Finland

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 10:53 am Post subject:

You had a choice between a career politician and a career businessman. Either way, your interests will not be pandered to or addressed.

TL;DR - don't panic. We have an obnoxiously huge government so that whatever fuckwit lands in the POTUS chair the damage will be minimized, with the exception of truly awful ideas that seemed like a good idea at the time (ACA, wars, etc)._________________NoOP / Reyn Time -- The $ is screwing everyone these days. (0xDB)

PoVModeratorJoined: 21 Aug 2005
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Location: Canadia

Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 5:49 pm Post subject:

Anyway, whatever. Five stages of grief and all. Actual bad shit has to happen first.

Moving on.

So hey, it's almost sale time. Black Friday is 2 weeks away. Unsurprisingly, a big deal around the world now (not just US only). My brother is pretty big in to it. I usually end up nabbing a BluRay for a good price.

Tomorrow is 11.11 (Singles day), which is the Chinese equivalent of Black Friday. Online marketplace AliExpress tends to make billions on it every year (while throwing a ridiculous superbowl 'esc celebration), 'cause if you didn't already know, you can get some crazy-good prices there by buying goods directly from China. Of course, not everything made in China is of the best quality, but sometimes you might be surprised what is.

*cough* I have nearly 20 items sitting in my shopping cart. Crazy stuff like a chainmail cloth for cleaning cast iron pans ($6), a Tamagoyaki pan for folded Japanese style scrambled eggs (~$7), a few wedge-shaped knives for pizza and bread dough (~$2 each, and another for 75 cents, to see which one I like best), and a variety of other oddball kitchen items costing anywhere from 50 cents to 4 dollars; Things that would cost 3-10x more here, plus being notoriously difficult to find. Free shipping on most items (one is ~$1 shipping).

What's nice about their upcoming sale, the sale prices have been online for the past week. So you can literally (as I've done) fill a shopping cart with items, and you know what it does cost, and it will cost. Of course, not all shops on Ali have the best prices, even after sales, so it's a bit of an investigation to find the best price for something (on and off sale).

In prior years I'd ordered all kinds of electronics parts. Chips, resistors, capacitors, crystal oscillators, wires, breadboards, you name it. You can get decent Single Board Linux Computers, the Orange Pi's for example. Hell, if you wanted to buy Samurai Armor you could. I'm just saying, the things you can find on the website are nuts.

The main downside, since it comes from China, packages can take anywhere from 3-9 weeks to show up. So it's patience shopping. ;)

They also have a really great customer-first policy. Say an item doesn't show up, Ali will side with the customer and refund you. That said, I've made hundreds of small orders, and when there were problems, the vendors often did a great job of sending replacements or refunding when asked. It has a similar vibe to Uber, in that the vendors go out of their way to make you happy. You just have to be fair when it comes to waiting for shipping.

Anyway, I just had to take a moment to blab about it. Buying from China is a silly thing that myself, my mom, and a few of my local friends are in to. The variety of stuff available, and prices, it's pretty amazing._________________Mike Kasprzak
'eh whatever. I used to make AAA and Indie games | Ludum Dare | Blog | Tweetar

PoVModeratorJoined: 21 Aug 2005
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Location: Canadia

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2016 9:34 am Post subject:

So hooray. The NES mini's are the hot item of the season. Launched today, sold out everywhere.

That sounds more the Nintendo I know. ;)_________________Mike Kasprzak
'eh whatever. I used to make AAA and Indie games | Ludum Dare | Blog | Tweetar